For some, a hole-in-one comes easily. Take former North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il for example. In his first round of golf, on a 7 000m championship course in 1994, he struck five ‘perfect flukes’ in his round of 38 under. He was 52 years old.

Naturally, that was a story concocted by the state media – there are only four par threes at Pyongyang Golf Club, duh – but it does make us wonder if a hole-in-one is indeed the ‘perfect fluke’ it’s so often described as.

It’s more luck and even destiny than a fluke, and most golfers who tee up on a short par three are one swing away from a hole-in-one. But, once the ball is struck, it really is in the hands of the golfing gods.

A common question is: Of the nine-darter (501 with nine darts and finishing with a bullseye or double), snooker’s 147 (cleaning the table after sinking all reds followed by a black) and golf’s hole-in-one, which is the hardest to achieve?

My answer is always the 147, then the nine-darter and then the hole-in-one.

Sure, even some of the best golfers in the world never get a hole-in-one. It took 35 years for Fabrizio Zanotti to achieve the first ace at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in 2016. There have now only been two in the event’s history.

Then, along comes Dale Whitnell (above) who scores two holes-in-one in the space of 11 holes at the 2025 Investec SA Open. That’s how these things work.

Apparently, the odds of ‘an average golfer’ making a hole-in-one are 12 000-1, a low-handicapper’s odds are 5 000-1 and a pro is 2 500-1. In 2018 the ‘500 shots to make a hole-in-one’ was the rage in DP World Tour promos. Brandon Stone took 500 balls to the 168m 4th hole at Gary Player Country Club and despite him peppering the pin, he didn’t make one.

A hole-in-one doesn’t count if it hasn’t been witnessed and it must be during a normal round on a nine- or an 18-hole course as defined by the R&A.

Our own golfing encyclopedia, Dale Hayes, says he has made ‘nine and a half’ holes-in-one. ‘The half came on a hole while doing a photo shoot of a course.’

Yet it’s something we can all relate to, any age, any ability and any handicap. I’ve come close but never made one, while I’ve only ever seen one in the flesh. I was following Ben Fouchee at the 1991 Bells Cup at Mowbray and standing next to the 16th tee – I’d met him at the 1988 British Amateur and I was following his pro career with interest – when he produced the shot.

There was much excitement, and more so when he was told on the tee box that he’d won 1 000 cases (12 000 bottles) of the sponsor’s finest whisky. He was asked whether he wanted to accept the whiskey or the cash equivalent. He thought for a moment and said, ‘Let’s see what dent we make tonight and I’ll tell you tomorrow.’

The flip side is that had Fouchee started drinking a bottle a day from that moment, he would have just run out of the last of those 1 000 cases, after 33 years.

Gary Lemke